Maryland is suing the Trump administration to stop the construction of an immigration detention facility in the state, according to a complaint filed Monday.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown says in the complaint that the Department of Homeland Security violated federal law by purchasing a warehouse in the state without an environmental review and without public input.
“The Trump Administration will stop at nothing to pursue its extreme immigration agenda — including breaking the law,” Brown said in a statement. “DHS purchased this facility while keeping the State and the public in the dark, spending more than $100 million in federal taxpayer dollars without performing the required environmental review and without giving Maryland or Marylanders any voice in the process.”
According to the complaint, DHS purchased a vacant commercial warehouse outside of Williamsport, Maryland, for $102.4 million on Jan. 16. The lawsuit says the purchase is part of a broader “mass immigration detention scheme” to convert warehouses across the country into detention centers as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown.
“Defendants are purchasing warehouses across the country and seeking to retrofit them into immigration detention and processing centers that can hold tens of thousands of immigrants,” the lawsuit states.
Contacted by ABC News, a DHS spokesperson said in a statement, “Let’s be honest about this. This isn’t about the environment. It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe again.”
“These will not be warehouses — they will be very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards,” the statement said. “It should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space.
The badge of ICE Field Office Director, Enforcement and Removal Operations, David Marin and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Fugitive Operations team search for a Mexican national at a home in Hawthorne, Calif., March 1, 2020.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters, FILE
“Secretary [Kristi] Noem has stated that she is willing to work with officials on both sides of the aisle to expand detention space to help ICE law enforcement carry out the largest deportation effort in American history,” the DHS statement said.
According to the Maryland complaint, the federal government violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by failing to conduct mandatory environmental reviews or seek public input about the project.
“Despite the major nature of this undertaking, Defendants have provided little information to the State concerning its plans for the property, depriving the State of the information needed to fully assess the harm Defendants’ actions will have on Plaintiff’s sovereign interests,” the lawsuit says.
Brown also argued in the complaint that converting the warehouse into a massive immigration detention facility will have “predictable impacts on the environmental, economic, and public health and safety interests of the State of Maryland.”
The state is asking the court to block any further construction of the facility.